Yamaha LS9 Getting the most out of instruments

[helper1112]

Hi all,

My church is talking about adding a mic or 2 or 3 to the drums. We already have the acoustic guitar and keyboard hooked up to the board. I am wondering when doing instruments what do you recommend for settings, like hpf on or off, any filtering or compressing done to them anything like that?

Thanks for any guidance...

[waynehoskins]

Every engineer has different preferences, and even more complexifying, different performers and styles of music need/want/take different treatment. Best answer: it depends.

For example, I generally like to use a decent amount of processing. Gates and comps on most everything. Usually I don't compress too aggressively; I go with a moderate ratio and low threshold so the compressor is acting most of the time, usually. That's for modern amplified music.

For traditional acoustic music, where the goal is to be as transparent as possible, you may want/need most of that dynamic range, and in general less processing is used.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, in the pop/dance genre, there's tons of processing and dynamic range optimization, even more than for normal rock and roll.

For EQ, it's all subjective, either correcting for transducer (mic/pickup) or source (vocal, instrument) error, or for stylistic purpose.

Mic selection and placement make a difference too. What mics are you looking to put on the kit? What style of music is it?

[helper1112]

Hello,

We mostly play contemporary christian songs to slower songs, not a lot of hard drumming or solos. Right now, the guitar, drums and electric piano have nothing setup on them. No HPF, compressor nothing....

Thanks for any ideas..

Andrew

[Brad Weber]

You typically use the HPF for sources that have limited low frequency content themselves in order to limit the amount of other low frequency energy they add to the mix, for example a vocal mic that could pick up the kick drum sound as well as the vocal would be a good place to engage the High Pass Filter as this helps reduce the low frequency 'mud' that may otherwise result. The LS9 has the additional advantage of having a variable frequency HPF, so you can adjust the HPF for the source, say higher for a soprano vocal and lower for a bass or baritone.

Other than that, as Wayne said, it is all personal preference. It is pretty common to use a gate on snare and kick drum mics (so that the mics don't pick up other sounds all the time), compression on vocals, etc. but the best thing to do is to experiment and find what works or doesn't work for your specific situation and preferences.

[helper1112]

Newbie question time. I am wondering what is the difference between the different dynamics in the dynamic library or is there somewhere I can read the difference between these online and a common example of a setting for each one? Also, when is it better to use Type 1 or Type 2 EQ?

Thanks for any help..